Kurier, May 27, 2020
German original: https://kurier.at/politik/inland/antisemitismusbericht-ikg-befuerchtet-anstieg-durch-corona-krise/400853186
550 incidents were reported last year - more than a doubling within five years.
The number of anti-Semitic reports in Austria has increased once more. The Anti-Semitism Report 2019 shows a total of 550 incidents, which constitutes an increase of 9.5 percent within a two- year period, and more than a doubling within five years. Almost half of those incidents can clearly be attributed to the right-wing political spectrum.
The incidents are documented by the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG) and the Forum for Anti-Semitism (FgA). While there were only 46 reports in 2008, the threshold of 500 has been passed since 2017. This can be attributed to an actual increase in anti-Jewish actions on one hand, and to a heightened awareness to report such incidents on the other. However, unrecorded cases still exist.
The Corona crisis could bring a further increase with it, fears the Secretary General of the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG), Benejamin Nägele, during his talk with the Austrian Press Agency (APA). He warns that hatred of Jews could arrive in the center of society.
In the past years, events like developments in the Middle East conflict, the terror attacks of September 11, or the financial crisis have led to an increase in anti-Semitic events. Classic anti-Semitic conspiracy myths - keyword “Brunnenvergifter” (well poisoners) - are also being used more during the current Corona pandemic, according to the IKG Secretary General.
Anti-Jewish Actions during the “Hygiene Demonstrations”
Specifically during the so-called “Hygiene demonstrations” against the Corona - measures, more anti-Jewish actions currently occur. Those also cannot be classified according to the classic categories like being motivated by the political right or left. Because also in the esoteric scene, or among anti-vaccination activists, the susceptibility for stereotypes is on the rise. “It shows how dangerous this anti-Semitic virus is,” says Nägele, who sees a big challenge in this problem.
We Still Stand at the beginning
Regardless, the IKG Secretary General sees the situation in Austria “luckily quite more stable” than in Germany - while he is convinced that “we are still standing at the beginning” and the situation could worsen, perhaps due to the looming financial crisis. In any case, Nägele regards the good cooperation with the government and the Office of the Protection of the Constitution as helpful. Dialogue happens, and the anti-Semitism strategy of the federal government is helpful.
Besides the worry about the center of society, a lot of assaults were still motivated by right-wing extremism during 2019, as the Anti-Semitism Report shows. An almost equal portion of incidents could not be classified within any category. For example, in the case of scrawling of swastikas it is impossible to tell if this was done by Neo-Nazis or if islamists used the symbol, reminds Nägele.